Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Thank yous & Foot Project winners

So the dissertation is defended, finished, and I
graduated. But as I prepare to move on to next steps, I thought it was important to pause here
and publicly acknowledge all those whose support has helped make this possible.
I’ve not only had a good team backing me on the home front, but also, as I said
in the opening of my talk at UCLA a couple weeks back (my first
post-graduation(!)), I’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to engage in an
ongoing public conversation around the work – this includes people I met at talks around
the country and all whom I've interacted with right here on the web and social media spaces. It’s all helped
shape the work as I went along.

Of the many things that this virtual space made possible
was my “put your foot in my dissertation project” – and the support of all the
participants from around the globe who willingly (and eagerly) shared their feet
with me! So before I list the dissertation acknowledgements, I want to get to
announcing the winners of my foot project contest. In addition to getting a
credit in the dissertation (as well as its future published form…),
participants were entered into a random drawing to win a signed 11by17 inch
print of one page from the dissertation, with three runners-up receiving a
signed-mini excerpt. I ended up with just shy of 100 feet from the individuals,
families, and groups listed below. I’m both grateful to have gotten all of these and
also grateful to not have gotten more! For not only did I end up retracing all
of them for clarity of line quality, I then turned each of those tracings into
brushes, which I used to then draw the distinct footpaths that make up these
trio of pages. (While this sequence was not displayed as a triptych in the
dissertation, I’m hopeful there will be a way to display it properly in its
next form.) Every SINGLE one of the feet submitted appear on these pages –
though I understand if you can’t identify your own easily! There is also a different
sequence with only men’s 10.5s overlaid on top of my foot outline, which perhaps
I’ll share at another point. I was really pleased with the tremendous variety
in foot shapes – and I think it helped make my visual argument – if our feet
are this distinct – then how different must be the ways in which we learn… (Note, this is a screenshot of three separate, still unlettered pages in low-res.)

Contest winners, randomly drawn:

Runners-up: Cathy Peet, Sue Uhlig, Steph

Grand prize winner: A. David Lewis

Since I knew all of the
opening round of winners to some degree or another, I decided to spread rewards around further and drew
again, and then one final time for good measure. And so:

Special prize goes to Hattie Kennedy and Damon Herd for
sending their feet in from the UK within 20 minutes of my posting it! Winners
will be notified by email and I will mail rewards to provided addresses.

All have my gratitude for their contribution and for all
the support of this project. The roll call:

Below, you’ll find acknowledgments from my dissertation,
more or less as they appear. (I'm thinking to do a more visual version of this for its post-dissertation form.) Since it isn’t readily available anywhere else
just yet, I thought it was important to share my words of gratitude in full here. I can say that the next steps for this work have been determined and that it will
be available in published form not too far off, of which I will speak of much more
at a later time. As for my own next steps? Those remain to be determined...

Thanks to all mentioned below and thanks to all who’ve been supporting this
project all along or just visiting for the first time… Onward! – Nick

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We don’t get where we’re going alone. The journey that
has been making this work has emerged from the conversations, advice,
inspiration, and support of those mentioned here, to whom I express my deep
gratitude.

I am moved by the openness from the outset with which my
advisor Professor Ruth Vinz embraced the decidedly unfamiliar territory that is
my work, and for her wise understanding that meaning making takes many forms.
As I meet others whose efforts to forge their own paths were stopped short by
those who possessed a narrow concept of what research can look like, I’m
particularly grateful for Ruth’s trust and encouragement for me to follow my
curiosity in the directions I needed to go. My advisor Professor Robbie
McClintock’s courses with his colleague Frank Moretti were a wellspring of
edification, and the thoughtfulness and humanity that both modeled in their
teaching have left a lasting impact on my thinking. I have a sense that Robbie
understood where I was headed before I did, and with a few thoughtful words
that stayed with me throughout the entire process, he helped me stay on track
and deepen my exploration between our ways of seeing and ways of learning.

I had the good fortune to happen upon Professor Maxine
Greene’s 90th birthday talk as my first outing at Teachers College. That
unexpected occurrence was a jolt of inspiration, which led me to her class, and
has since spiraled into an ongoing conversation that I cherish. Maxine’s
commentary as she read over my pages has been a constant source of delight, and
I’m extremely fortunate to have that opportunity to engage with her spinning,whirling mind. (Sadly, Maxine passed away two weeks ago, just a few
weeks after the defense. I wrote about her here.)

Professor Mary Hafeli came on board near the end of this
journey as final reader but immediately brought with her tremendous insight,
support, and encouragement for which I am grateful and eager for conversations to
come. (Please note, while university formatting requirements allow only a
candidate’s first two committee members to appear on the title page, both
professors Greene and Hafeli also served on my committee, and I want to make
special note of that here.) Even at a distance, Professor Graeme Sullivan has
been a steady and extremely generous rock of support and counsel. His work and
dedication are ever an inspiration to keep pushing forward. And to Mary
Sullivan, for all her kindness, warmth, and encouragement.

There are many faculty members at Teachers College whose
contributions have helped shape and buoy this work throughout. This includes
courses and conversations with Judy Burton and Barbara Tversky, conversations
and boundless encouragement from Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Lalitha Vasudevan, Olga
Hubbard, Sheridan Blau, and the aforementioned Frank Moretti, whose absence is
a tremendous loss to the intellectual and human community of Teachers College.

I’m grateful for the support and advice from Vice Provost
William Baldwin and Provost Thomas James, and additionally grateful to them and
the award committee for the support and recognition of the Provost’s Doctoral
Dissertation Grant. A big thank you to Rocky Schwarz along with his team at TC’s
Business Services Center, including Aklilu, Michael, Isaac, and Chan, for their
generous support and dealing with my difficult and usually nearly last-minute
printing requests. Margaret Scanlon and Carey Reed in the English Ed office
were a bit of sunshine and a big help sorting through things throughout my time
at Teachers College. To Russell Gulizia for ensuring this all came together
properly.

I’m indebted to the conversations over the years between
my friend and collaborator Professor Fred Goodman, who is always prompting me
to turn things over and look from other sides. My conversations with CharlesMcGee serve as a constant source of inspiration and are ever present in my
thinking and my voice.

I’ve benefited from terrific, inspiring, and supportive
colleagues at Teachers College, including Andrea Kantrowitz, Marta Cabral, Tara
Thompson, Daiyu Suzuki, and Razia Sadik. I can’t say enough about Suzanne Choo,
the best partner I could have in navigating graduate school – our
collaborations and spirited bickering made this adventure so much the better. Ryan
Goble got me into this in the first place, and our conversations and his humor
have helped sustain me over the years. I am grateful to list Timothy K. Eatman,
Adam Bush, Donald Blumenfeld-Jones, Bill Ayers, Jim Hall, Anastasia Salter, and
Adam Bessie as colleagues and collaborators. I’ve been fortunate to draw
together wonderful colleagues in comics and education from across the country,
including Christy Blanch, Yen Yen Woo, Stergios Botzakis, Jarod Roselló, Marcus
Weaver-Hightower, and Andrew Wales. Friends old and new whose counsel and
insight have helped broaden my thinking: Susanne Beechey, Andy Malone, Matt
Sikora, Sambuddha Saha, Andrew Butler, Adam McGovern, Remi Holden, Alexander
Rothman, Andrea Tsurumi, Paul Hirsch, Lou Bury, Daniel Powell, Mark D. White, and
Meg Lemke. A special shout out to Leo Tarantino and Stephanie Huffaker, who
read chapters as I finished them and kindly shared their insight.

The support of REDACTED and the team at REDACTED Press
has been incredible, and I’m eager for our next steps together.

I am grateful for my involvement with the Association for
Interdisciplinary Studies and its similarly difficult-to-define membership,
including Bill Newell, Julie Klein, Roz Schindler, Rick Szostak, Angus
McMurtry, Tanya Augsburg, Jennifer Dellner, and James Welch, III. A similar
shout out goes to the folks of Imagining America and their PAGE graduate
fellows for welcoming me and their vision for and dedication to intersecting
arts and scholarship, academia and the larger public. Thanks to the support of
the Stanford Graphic Narrative Project/Ideograph Journal and my new friends and colleagues there:
Angela Becerra Vidergar, Vanessa Chang, and Haerin Shin.

To my students at Teachers College, Parsons, back at
Wayne State University, and on the tennis courts, from whom I have learned so
much from about learning and teaching, and whose interactions have inspired me
to constantly expand my thinking.

For the inspiration and all that their work has made
possible for comics: Alan Moore, Scott McCloud, Art Spiegelman, Françoise
Mouly, Will Eisner, David Mazzucchelli, Frank Miller, Marjane Satrapi, Lynda
Barry, and Chris Ware.

To my brother John, his wife Autumn, and their growing
family – a kaleidoscope of different eyes to learn from. A conversation with
Aurora Sousanis about testing day at school followed by watching her learn a
new skill on the monkey bars has served as an essential lesson to me about
what’s important in learning. To my brother Dan, with great appreciation for
opening my eyes to distinct ways of making in the world.

To my parents Dean and Anne Sousanis, educators in the
best sense of the word, for their inspiration and endless support for my
explorations, and for instilling in me through their example the importance of
keeping one’s eyes open.

And of course, to my wife Leah. Having a partner who
understands you and can articulate your work better than you can is monumental.
From her tireless support and belief in me to her passionate editorial input
(!), her presence enriches everything I do. – W. N. S.

DEDICATION

For Rosalie Anne Goodbear Sousanis – and all the
possibilities that lay ahead for her…

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About Me

Nick Sousanis cultivates his creative practice at the intersection of image and text. A doctoral candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University, he is writing and drawing his dissertation entirely in comic book form. Before coming to NYC, he was immersed in Detroit’s thriving arts community, where he co-founded the arts and cultural web-mag www.thedetroiter.com; served as the founding director of the University of Michigan’s Work:Detroit exhibition space, and became the biographer of legendary Detroit artist Charles McGee. His comics have been infiltrating the academic realm through numerous publications and he furthers his advocacy for the medium in the comics course he developed for educators at Teachers College.
Contact nsousanis @ gmail.com
Tw: @nsousanis